72 Votes

The Sunday Express meets them in the last days of Campaign 2014 for an opinion poll, of sorts.

One father is a retired mathematics teacher who breaks down less than ten minutes into talking about his imprisoned son. Another is an orthopaedic surgeon who says he counts the hours, waiting for justice, by letting patients stream into his clinic well past midnight. A third is an 18-year-old student who runs a half-room library in his village. This is my comfort, he says, helping others read, as he waits to hear from his brother, in jail for six years.

There are five more.

Eight of 22 families in Azamgarh from where 14 men have been arrested over the last six years, accused of being part of the Indian Mujahideen’s terror plots. Seven others are missing, two have been killed.

One Sunday ago, Amit Shah was in town calling it aatankvadgarh (the house of terror). Mulayam Singh Yadav, who is contesting from here, has taken these families for granted. Narendra Modi was here, too, on Thursday. He made one reference to the “youth” of Azamgarh: “you will write the future of India”.

These eight families have 72 votes on May 12.

The Sunday Express meets them in the last days of Campaign 2014 for an opinion poll, of sorts.